


Correspondents Dinner

by mackenziemchale



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Correspondents dinner, F/M, Fluff, Post S3, Post Series, Running into their exes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28390185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackenziemchale/pseuds/mackenziemchale
Summary: The last correspondents dinner they had been to was in 2013 and it had been quite the trip. From Mac being approached by the source who was the reason Neal was in hiding and Will later was sent to jail for 52 days, to having to meet the new owner of ACN.
Relationships: Will McAvoy/MacKenzie McHale
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	Correspondents Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to my friend Rosie, who gave me this idea and helped me when I needed it. Thank you for the idea and help ❤️
> 
> Enjoy ❤️

Mac steps back into the event hall that she, along with the entire bullpen, and a mass amount of their colleagues were at for the correspondents dinner. It felt strange being at another one of these, considering last year she and Will had to miss out due to having only a three month old baby and neither being quite ready to leave and go all the way to DC for a night. 

The last correspondents dinner they had been to was in 2013 and it had been quite the trip. From Mac being approached by the source who was the reason Neal was in hiding and Will later was sent to jail for 52 days, to having to meet the new owner of ACN. 2013 had been whirlwind after whirlwind and while things had definitely settled since then, life was still hectic as ever.

While searching the crowd of journalists to find Will, Mac was still reliving the last time they were here. Meeting Lily, the source, had been a lot and meeting Pruit, the pompous asshole that he was, was also a lot but, there was one memory from that evening that stuck out like a sore thumb to her. She could still see the image of Will doing photo ops with fans of his and how it had abruptly come to an end when he was served a subpoena by an intern of all people.

Mac could still remember how frustrated she was with him that night after the dinner ended. Of course, the frustration hadn’t really settled in until after he nearly ripped the dress she’d been wearing off of her. She could still see the look on his face when she came out of their bedroom wearing that dress and how they almost didn’t make it to the dinner on time. 

But after they’d settled in bed that night she scolded him for being stupid enough to think that he was too big to jail. She’d been frustrated, but mostly she was scared at the thought of him going to jail and that they would be apart for an unknown amount of time. Will had let her give him an earful that night, even though he still wasn’t convinced he’d be sent to jail. 

Shaking the memory of their last time at a correspondents dinner from her mind, Mac finally spots Will in a corner by himself. It looked as if he wanted to be alone and another second later she realizes why people weren’t trying to chat with him when she spots his phone pressed against his ear. Who the hell was he calling? Almost everyone he would be calling was here.

“Who are you on the phone with?” she questions as she finally reaches him.

Will pulls his phone from his ear, the call having just ended and looks back up at Mac as he slides his phone back into his pocket. “I was just calling…” and his mind goes blank as he tries to come up with someone that wasn’t who he was actually calling. “...my sister.” 

Crossing her arms, knowing him well enough to know he’s lying, she replies, “you never call your sister for the hell of it. You don’t call anyone for the hell of it.” Mac was pretty sure that  _ she _ was the only person he’d ever called for the hell of it. They’d had countless late night phone calls while dating and when she started working at ACN. She purses her lips together while her mind strings together the possible conclusion, hitting it just a moment later, “you were calling Leona to check on Charlie weren’t you?”

“I- um, maybe,” Will sheepishly admits.

She can’t deny that his love for their daughter was one of the sweetest things in the entire world, but sometimes his protectiveness went past its limits. Not that she was complaining, but he was definitely the more protective parent. Then again, being a protector has always been his role and she couldn’t entirely blame him for that.

“Honey, you were there when we put her to bed before we left,” she points out.

It was late and being that she was a year old, Charlotte slept through the night nearly every night. Leona was there to keep an eye on the baby monitors in case tonight was one of those rare nights Charlie did actually wake up. There was really no need to check in on her because they’d see her again in the morning once they get back from DC.

“I know, I know… I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted to be sure the apartment wasn’t burning down or something.”

“Billy, she’s fine. Leona’s a good babysitter and if god forbid something  _ does _ happen, she’ll let us know immediately.” Mac steps a bit closer and takes hold of his hand and rubs her thumb against it, “don’t worry too much about Charlie okay? She’s fast asleep and we’ll see her first thing tomorrow,” she reassures.

Will nods, “you’re right, I’m sorry for worrying too much.”

She gives him a smile, “it’s fine, it’s sweet really. She’s got the best dad in the world.” Mac then leans in and presses a quick kiss to his lips. 

Stepping back and turning toward the crowd of people still going about their lives and enjoying the party, Mac tugs his hand to lead him back into said crowd, “now come on and let's enjoy our night.”

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀●●●⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀  ⠀

The next hour of their night was spent with Don and Sloan at a table, taking this rare opportunity to drink, eat some delicious finger-foods, and actually talk about things unrelated to work. Their conversations shifted between group conversations and breaking off into Mac and Sloan talking individually and Don and Will talking individually. 

Mac and Sloan talked at length about Sloan and Don’s wedding, which still was a little ways away as their engagement was fairly recent, but they couldn’t help but want to come up with ideas for her dress, the venue, all of it really.

“I’m going to make sure you have the wedding Will and I never got to have, it’s going to be unforgettable,” Mac insists as the two of them continue sipping on their wine and chatting away about the wedding.

“Speaking of, have you and Will ever considered having the ceremony you never got to have? It still makes me sad to think about all the planning you guys did only for it to get thrown out.”

Mac gives a shrug, “a proper ceremony like we planned would’ve been nice, but I think we’re both fairly happy with how it went. Everyone who we  _ really  _ wanted to be there was and besides I was the one who insisted we get married right before he got whisked off to jail.” She then glances across the table at her husband, who was lost in conversation with Don. Her lips curve into a small smile before she looks back at Sloan, “he wanted to elope anyway, he was just going along with the ceremony bit with 300 guests and all the frivolous stuff to make me happy.”

Sloan nods, “that’s what he lives for isn’t it?”

She glances back over at Will and tries to hold back on the red flush that was making its way into her cheeks, “for me and for Charlie.” Mac then turns back and shakes her head, “but enough about me and Will, let’s get back to your wedding.” She grabs hold of her wine glass and takes a sip as Sloan continues on talking about ideas she had for the venue.

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀●●●⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀  ⠀

When they decided to wrap up their chat with Sloan and Don and move back to making their rounds, Will was asked again to do a photo op with fans, just as he’d done when they came in 2013. Mac kissed him on the cheek and stood off to the side of the photo op and watched as people lined up to get their picture with him. She couldn’t help but have a smile on her face the entire time, she was so proud of him. 

She also couldn’t help but think about how they’d gone from doing a small news show not very many people knew about at CNN, to a show that was back to being 3rd in the ratings while giving people the news that they needed. They were still climbing their way back to second, but they were slowly getting there and it was easier now that Pruit had been kicked to the curb. 

Though Mac wasn’t EP anymore, she was still proud of her little News Night family and everything they’ve done throughout the years despite the massive roadblocks. 

Will’s photo op comes to an end a little bit later and he begins walking back over to her in an instant, “what are you smiling about?” He questions as her smile only grew when she saw him approaching.

“I’m just immensely proud of you,” she answers.

“Well I certainly wouldn’t be where I am without you, so I can’t take all the credit.”

Mac just shakes her head and pulls him down into a quick, but loving kiss. 

When they break apart Will can’t wipe the smile from his face and he steps even closer to her, “you know we could get out of here early if you want, go back to the hotel,” his finger was lightly tracing along her bare arm and they were lucky no one was paying them close attention, “take advantage of our night alone.” 

His words were low and right on her ear as he said that and his warm breath sent a chill up her spine, “I can’t imagine any other way I’d want to spend the night,” she replies, her lips twisting up into a small smirk. 

Will’s hand finds her own quickly and he begins to guide the way through the sea of journalists, Mac following closely behind. They weren’t even going to bother to say goodbye to anyone from the bullpen, they wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. 

Their b-line to the exit comes to a screeching halt as they try to work through the crowd and in the process they manage to run right into Brian Brenner, who of course, being a reporter for The New Yorker, was also there.

Almost instantly upon seeing Brian, Mac feels Will squeeze her hand tighter and she squeezes it back. Leaning over to him, she whispers, “I know you badly want to sucker punch him in the face right now but don’t forget we’re surrounded by dozens of reporters and if you punch him, you’re going to be the leading story for every outlet here.”

She feels Will relax a little after that reminder but knew he was still seething, because seeing Brain again was the last thing on either of their to-do lists.

Mac on the other hand, wasn’t so much angry upon seeing him as she was sick. He brought back a lot of bad memories that were desperately trying to break through the floodgates. 

“Mac, Will,” Brian greets with a cunning smile. “I haven’t seen you two since that article I wrote on Will for The New Yorker, how’ve you been?” His tone was thick with mockery, because it was clear he knew full well what effects the article had on Will and ACN, especially among their peers. 

“Oh, right, the article that tore Will and our show to shreds, making our peers turn their backs on us. Yeah, I remember that,” the bitterness in her voice was as clear as a summer day, and now her anger was starting to settle in.

That article Brain wrote on Will pissed her off in a way she couldn’t explain. It was bullshit, every single line of that article was bullshit and yet Will consumed it over and over again. He took it in and deemed it to be the truth, like he was reading an encyclopedia and not one person’s opinion, a shit one at that. He took it to heart and it sat so heavily with him, he ended up taking too many antidepressants. He claimed it was an accident and whether or not that was true, to this day Mac can’t scrub the image of him passed out on his bathroom floor covered in his own blood. 

It angered her to hear Brian throw that back at Will. So much so that this time, Will was the one squeezing her hand to bring her back down and remind her of where they were.

The awkward tension had been laid on thick since she said that and it would take a machete to cut through it. There was nothing said for nearly a minute and thankfully she doesn’t have to come up with something that isn’t an insult because Will is the one to speak this time.

“Well, ahem, Mackenzie and I should be going,” he begins to continue for the exit, “I would say it was nice seeing you, but… it really wasn’t.”

Mac quickly catches up to Will’s side, though inconvenient to get through a crowd, she wanted to take the next opportunity that presented itself. As they continue walking she steps next to him and slides her left arm around Will’s waist. She then presses her hand against his back, knowing that her boulder of a ring was shining in the light and there was no doubt Brian was watching them leave. Will was oblivious, he just slides his arm around her lower back in return and walks with her right out of the event hall.

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀●●●⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀  ⠀

The ride back to the hotel surprisingly wasn’t all that quiet nor had it seemed to kill either one of their moods for the night. Seeing Brian pissed both of them off in one way or another, but now that they were long gone from where he was he was out of sight, out of mind.

Mac sits pressed up against Will as they both watch DC pass by them, their fingers interlaced. At one point, Will had turned toward her and started peppering kisses along her bare shoulder then up her neck, whispering, “did I mention how stunning you looked in that dress tonight?”

And she quietly laughs in return while his hand eagerly begins to slide up one of her legs, “maybe once… or twice, I can’t really remember,” she lies.

Will had told her  _ several _ times how stunning he thought she looked in the black off the shoulder dress with a slit that went up almost the entirety of her leg. It was obvious by his incessant compliments that he loved this dress more than the one she wore to the last correspondents dinner they went to. 

Mac welcomes his lips when they reached her own and they kissed each other hard. She didn’t move his hand from her leg either, in fact she was starting to push his jacket off of his shoulders when the car came to a stop and they had to quickly pull apart. 

Her cheeks were bright right as they left the car but she couldn’t help but laugh as she giddily followed him into the hotel. They were right back where they were when they were leaving the correspondents dinner, eager to make it back to their hotel room. 

Upon entering the elevator and pressing their floor, Mac checks to make sure they’re alone before turns back to him and pushes him up against the wall of the elevator and begins kissing him again. They both knew they only had a few seconds in the elevator before they had to break apart again, but they didn’t care.

However, in their negligence of their surroundings, they fail to notice another person stepping on the elevator before the door closes. They were too enveloped in each other to even hear another person getting on. 

It wasn’t until the said third party cleared their throat that the two of them pull away from each other, both sharing a look of sheepishness. 

The awkwardness settles in fast because when Mac turns to apologize to the person standing in the elevator next to them, the wind is almost knocked out of her when she realizes it’s Nina Howard.

Well, what a night of run-ins this was turning out to be. 

Will notices Nina just a second after Mac and he notices as Mac stands a bit closer to him as she takes his hand into her own, unsure of what to say.

It was prevalent to both of them that Nina was a mixture of horror from seeing them completely enraptured in one another and almost disgusted that they’d act like two horny idiots in public. The judgment from her was thick, and she didn’t even have to say anything.

“Ahem,” Will clears his throat, “Nina… we’re uh, sorry we uh-,” he didn’t usually stumble over his words, but this situation was about as awkward as things could get, “we didn’t think anyone would step on.”

That was really all they could get in before the elevator stopped and opened to Nina’s floor, they still had a few more to get to their own. 

“Well, next time if you’re going to shove your tongues down each other’s throats,” Nina says as she begins to step out of the elevator, “don’t do it in a place where anyone could be watching.” With that she was out of the elevator and the doors were closing behind her.

They were quiet for a moment as the elevator starts going back up and Mac rests her head on his shoulder, letting out a sigh as she does.

“We’re definitely going to…” Will starts.

“End up in TMI somewhere tomorrow? Probably,” Mac finishes his sentence. 

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Will opens the door to their hotel room and looks around as he steps in, like he was looking to see if there was another person in the room.

“Have you officially lost it?” Mac asks as she watches while steps in behind him and lets the door to the room close.

“Just want to be sure no more of our exes are going to pop out at any moment. Who knows, maybe Wade is hiding in our shower.” Will was still genuinely searching the room as if his statement was true and they were about to see another one of their exes. 

Mac cringes at the mention of Wade while she slides out of her high heels, “oh please don’t jinx us my love, I’d rather never see Wade again. Seeing Brian and Nina in the same night was enough of them for the rest of my life.”

He finally stops the search he’d been doing and watches as Mac places her shoes out of the way, “seeing Brian made sense, you clearly have a thing for journalists.”

A laugh comes from her at that and she begins to walk over to him, “okay I can’t really argue with that one. I just didn’t think he’d be there, but then again I don’t ever think about him.” 

When Mac reaches him, she brings her hands up to his tie and begins to undo it as they continue to talk. “Now seeing Nina, yeah that was a weird coincidence, but who knows where being a gossip columnist takes you.”

Will shrugs, “I’m just glad seeing them hasn’t ruined our night in any way, given our past with both of them.”

Pulling off his tie, she tosses it to the side then shrugs in return, “I certainly wasn’t happy to see them. Actually, I was pretty pissed with Brian, but in a way I’m glad we ran into them.”

His brows furrow, “you’re going to have to elaborate on that one.”

“Well for starters, I finally got to tell Brian to his face just how shitty his article on you was and that was nice. But other than that, we basically shoved it in their faces that we’re happily married, going on two years next week,” she answers with a smile and presses her hands to his chest. “Brian pretty much told me when you brought him to write the article that we’d never get back together and boy did I prove him wrong.”

Will brings his arms to loop around her waist as she steps a little closer to him, “Brian’s an imbecile whose career is hanging on by a thread, so it’s pretty easy to prove him wrong.”

She nods, “you’re right, but it’s nice to know he knows I proved him wrong. And as for Nina, we quite literally shoved it in her face by her stepping on to the elevator while we were making out. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine a better way to run into her.”

He chuckles at that and starts to trail one of his hands to one of the sleeves that was hanging off her shoulder, gently tugging it down, “you know the pleasure you’re getting out of showing our exes we’re happily married is weirdly turning me on.”

“Are you sure it’s not the fact that my breasts are nearly coming out of this dress?” 

Will was starting to pull her out of the dress now and Mac was happily letting him do so, “mmm… that might be part of it, that and the slit that’s almost the entirety of your leg.”

Mac nods and swiftly pushes the jacket off his shoulders, “you are a leg man.”

“That I am,” he says and lets his jacket fall off of him before he returns to helping her slip out of her dress completely. When the black dress falls to the floor, he steps back and takes a moment to admire her body in all of its beauty. “Yep, still the most attractive person I’ve ever seen in real life,” he confirms.

She laughs and then smiles, “shut up.”

Will smiles too as he brings one arm back around her and pulls her into another passionate kiss, allowing them to fall right back to where they were in the elevator.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read. Please feel free to leave any thoughts or just a kudos if you liked it. 
> 
> Until the next ❤️


End file.
